


The Gifts We Give

by BiologyGnome



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Glorified Jewelry making, Idk other stuff probably, M/M, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Presents, Sad Keith (Voltron), klangst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-13 16:58:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15369141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BiologyGnome/pseuds/BiologyGnome
Summary: It's hard to find time for romance during a war but when Keith discovers the instructions to an ancient gift giving ritual in a book about Galra history he knows he has to get the perfect gift for Lance, even if he has to travel across the cosmos to get it.A fic inspired by KuroNeko6's Voltron AU challenge.





	1. Distant Shores

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KuroNeko6](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuroNeko6/gifts).



> Hi there! I saw the prompt for this and I just couldn't resist! Super deeper special thanks to KuroNeko6 for the amazing idea! I originally wrote it all as one insanely long chapter that I'm breaking up so sorry if they're a bit uneven length wise!
> 
> This fic doesn't have an exact set time period in the show but it's probably like around season 3 before Shiro shows up and after the lion switch? Idk. I guess it could also probably be sometime in season 6. Well anyway....
> 
> Enjoy!

Keith was many things, orphan, ex-cadet, paladin of Voltron, member of the Blade of Marmora, human.

Galra.  
This of course was now common knowledge to everyone on team Voltron and something he'd come to accept. It was something he'd also been trying to understand with the help of the Blade. He grew up for so long with out a culture, without a heritage. Now that he had one he wanted to learn everything about it he could.

He was also Lance's boyfriend. That title was a relatively new one. Keith wasn't sure when their rivalry had turned into something more, he suspected it had been a long time coming but the start of their relationship could most easily be traced back to one night a few months ago.

Keith had been in the training room late that night, a usual occurrence due to his requent bouts of insomnia. But something was different this time. Keith was struck with a different kind of restlessness that night, one that crept at the corners of his mind threatening to leave him with his thought if he ever stopped distracting himself.   
The training room worked for a little bit but it wasn't long before even the enormous training room felt too small to escape his thoughts.

That's how Keith ended up wandering the castle halls at about the earth equivalent of 3am searching for something, anything, to keep his mind busy. Keith kept walking until he stopped in front of a room he'd never seen before. Now, finding a new room in the enormous castle was not a particularly surprising event, however finding some one else in it definitely was.  
The person in question sat before a glowing orb the rooms walls covered in a colorful projection of a beautiful beach with crystal clear water and an orange pink sky.   
"Lance?" Keith questioned the figure in the room.  
Sure enough when the person turned around Keith's eyes were met with Lance's deep blue ones.

It took Lance a minute to register who was standing in the doorway.  
"Keith? What are you doing up here?"

"I uh...couldn't sleep." Said Keith simply. "You?"

"Oh...uh homesick I guess. Coran showed me this place after Sendack's attack. It can show most planets from the surrounding galaxies." 

"Oh." Keith responded softly. He looked back up to the beach scene covering the walls. "So this is..."

"My home? Yeah. The satellites that took these probably broke down a couple thousand years ago so Veradero's pretty much uninhabited but the beach is still here. I come here whenever I miss home." Lance stared at the projection wistfully. "I can still picture everything. The boardwalk over there" he pointed to the trees at the back if the beach. "And town is back there. That's where my favorite pizza shack is, their garlic knots are amazing. And over there..." Lance pointed to a group of trees a little while down the beach. "Is where we live." He smiled slightly but then a deep sadness crossed his face again. He turned back to Keith. "I'm sorry." He'd smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "I'm talking your ear off. I'll go." He got up to leave but Keith grabbed hand hand to stop him. Why did he do that?

Lance was right, usually Keith would be annoyed with Lance's jabbering but today wasn't usually.   
Because Lance hadn't really looked happy since he'd stopped talking. Because Keith's mind had been quiet since he'd started.   
Keith quickly pulled his hand away from Lance's.   
"Sorry." He said softly. "Please...um please stay." Keith wasn't much great at talking but he was a pretty good listener. "Um.. tell me about your family." 

Lance stared at Keith confused for a minute but when he realized Keith was serious he smiled slightly and began to talk. "Well, I have 6 siblings, I'm a middle child." I have an older brother, Daniel, he's married and has a son, Mateo, my big sister Sophie, she's in college. Then there's my younger brother, Benji. Man, we did everything together, middle kids stick together." 

Lance went on and on, about his twin siblings, Veronica and Luis, about little Javi, his youngest sibling. More than anyone he talked about his mother, Rosa. Keith listened. And when the castle's artificial morning came both were asleep on the floor. It was the best sleep Keith'd had in years.

 

After that their night talks became a regular occurrence. Then the boys realized that they slept better when they were together and made an agreement to sleep in the same room, just to help each other sleep easy, no had to know. Eventually Keith moved from the floor to the bed. It was simply inconvenient and unnecessary to have Keith on the floor. They were just friends.  
Then they became more then friends.

 

It was another late night or perhaps it was early morning, it was impossible to tell. It was one of those magic moments that can only happen before dawn where a minute can last forever and nothing in the world has to matter. Keith and Lance were just looking at each other, they didn't have to talk anymore, being there was enough.   
Lance studied Keith's amethyst eyes for a moment and then opened his mouth to say something but Keith didn't hear because Lance's face was so close and his eyes were so blue in the dim lamp light and Keith just wanted to kiss him.  
And then Lance kissed him and the universe fell into place.  
And then he pulled away and the planets came crashing down.  
They sat there staring at each other for one endless magic moment.

And then Lance pulled his hand away from Keith's and scrambled away from him. "Holy shit, I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was doing! I just..." but he was cut off when

Keith leaned forward and kissed him back. Keith pulled back and smiled.  
"Shut up and kiss me you idiot."

                                                    -------------

They tried to keep their relationship a secret for a while. They only succeeded for about 1.5 days when the entire team walked in on them making out on the lounge couch. Someone cleared their throat and the two boys popped up from the couch, hair a mess and faces red. Lance awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and said, "Suprise?" But the team didn't look surprised, in fact most of the team looked pretty pissed off, except for Pidge who was smirking.   
"Pay up bitches." Said the copper haired team which made the rest of the group groan and fork over some of the blue bills Coran had given them.


	2. A mission to make

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith feels guilty about not doing more for Lance so he makes a plan with a little help from the team's resident gremlin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to say besides um... I hope you enjoy?

It may not have seemed like it all the time but team Voltron was fighting a war and romance is not exactly easy in a war. Why was this important? Well it meant that Keith and Lance had never had a real date.   
Until the day of their three month anniversary.   
Keith had been sitting on the lounge couch sharpening his Marmora blade, an unnecessary step in the upkeep of the powerful alien metal but one that Keith found calming nonetheless. Suddenly everything went dark as a pair of hands came from behind him and covered his eyes. "Guess who." Said the owner of the hands in a horrible falsetto. Keith laughed. It was something so short and soft that anyone could miss it, but to Lance it felt like a victory.

"What do you want Lance?" Keith asked, but he wasn't annoyed, rather he was smiling. 

Lance feigned surprise. "How did you know it was me!?" 

Keith rolled his eyes. Lance held out a bunch of...well...something.  
"What's this?" Asked Keith, amused.

Lance clutched his heart. "Do you exist solely to wound me? It's a bouquet of flowers!" 

Keith raised an eyebrow at this. The flowers in question were made up of a dark black stick like burned incense with glowing blue orbs hovering a few inches above each "stick".

"Space flowers?" Lance replied blushing.

This time Keith laughed loud enough that anyone in the room would be able to hear, but of course, they were alone.  
"And why did you get me space flowers, Lance?"

"Well, you see, the thing is..."  
Lance was a blushing stuttering mess. "I'm asking you out on a date!" He shoved the flowers in Keith's face.

"Lance." 

"Yea?" Lance's ocean eyes met Keith's violet in a single electrifying moment.

"We're dating." Keith said with the most deadpan expression Lance has ever seen on his face. 

Now it was Lance's turn to smile. "Well yeah, but we've never actually been on a date. I know that we're in the middle of a war and all but today is our 3 month anniversary and I wanted to do something special sooooo I planned us a date! That is if you want to of course."

Keith stared up at the lanky cuban boy above him. The boy who had saved him from his own head.  
"Of course I want to you stupid idiot."  
\----------

The date had been about 3 weeks ago and they were rapidly approaching their four month anniversary. Since then Keith had learned a few very important facts about himself and Lance.

1\. Galra, though a vicious mostly evil race of purple space cats, valued mating and courtship very highly in their society and even though Galra did not necessarily mate for life finding your life mate was regarded as one of the greatest things that could happen to a Galra being and often regarded as a magical and powerful bond beyond description. You don't believe in soul mates? Well the Galra sure did.

2\. Gift giving was an essential aspect of Galra courtship and was as much of a tradition as it was a blood instinct. Gifts were often given to life mates as a symbol of eternal love and acceptation of the gift meant acceptation of that person as your partner. Rejection of the gift meant rejection of the person and on the life mate level of a relationship it was described as both mentally and physically excruciating.

3\. Lance was a romantic. He lived for dates and wooing. He believed in courtship and getting to know each other. And though this was still a war and couldn't take Keith home to meet his family he'd done the next best thing and told Keith about them. He'd spent hours recounting his family stories and had taken Keith to picnics on holographic beaches and so much more that it would be impossible to recount it all. Keith however couldn't do any of that. He had no family to talk about, no home to show off, just a couple of informational books, a dagger, and a broken past, and though Lance said that none of this bothered him Keith knew Lance yearned to be wooed just as much a he loved wooing Keith.

4\. Keith needed to get Lance something special. Because this boy had saved him when he'd needed it most. Because this boy had given him a cause when he'd never had one before. Because they'd only been dating four months and this was war and it was messy and complicated and imperfect and Keith was pretty sure he loved him.   
\----------

Keith groaned and collapsed onto the book he was reading. He had been searching for hours for some idea of what to get Lance in the old galra history and culture books Kolivan had given him a few months back. He supposed he could just buy some nice jewelry or something at the space mall but he knew that for it to really mean something to Lance it had to mean something to Keith and these books were as close to a family tree as he had.   
Keith lifted his head, elbows on the book, head in his hands. He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes to prepare to keep going but then in an unusual moment of clumsiness the book slid from under his elbows sending his chin slamming into the table and the book flying against the wall. Keith contemplated just staying collapsed on the table this time since getting up last time had seemed to end so poorly, but Keith was nothing if not stupidly determined and with a sigh he pushed himself up off the table and walked over to retrieve the book. Keith leaned over to pick it up and then, in a moment that seemed too improbable to happen anywhere other than a movie, Keith took a glimpse down and the pages below to find the very item he'd been searching for staring right back at him.  
\-----------

_Galra: A History and a Heritage_  
Vol 3: Mating and Life-bonds  
Chapter 15 Page 136: Life-Mate artifacts

_"As previously discussed in chapters thirteen and fourteen the tradition of gift giving is essential and almost instinctual in Galra mating and courtship. Gifts can consist of almost anything of personal significance to the recipient or the giver but there are a few gifts that are well known to all Galra known as the artifacts. The artifacts are famous from important historical events or how difficult they are to acquire and are often said to have incredibly powerful charms that guarantee extreme good luck and fortune, though those claims remain unproven._  
\------------

Keith had done a lot of stupidly reckless thing both on earth and more so, in space. Act first think later was essentially his motto. That being said, this was perhaps one of the stupidest and most reckless decisions he'd made and would only ever be attempted by someone who cared so little about there own self preservation that they'd do anything for someone else and only be succeeded by someone stupidly and hopelessly in love. Luckily for Keith he was both of these things. Now, he just needed a game plan and for that he'd need help and thankfully for that he had a genius teenager willing to do anything for the right price.  
\------------

_Galra: A History and a Heritage_  
Vol 3: Mating and Life-bonds  
Chapter 15 Page 141: Life-Mate artifacts

_"The final and most famous artifact is a pendant by the name of Dragostrea Stea, famous for its difficulty to create and the tragic legend behind it. The Dragostrea originates from the famous legend of Mahajjata and Jauneisi, a romantic tragedy dating back to the beginning of the Empire, and consists of five pieces to represent the five elements, earth, nature, space, water, and fire."_  
\-----------

"That is the dumbest fucking idea I've ever heard."   
Pidge was seated at the desk she had taken over for her experiments peering skeptically up at Keith.

"So you can't help me?" Asked Keith, desperation obvious in his voice.

"Oh no, I can." Pidge stated plainly.

"But you won't." Said Keith, confused.

"Falsehood. I can help you and I actually would like to help you, I've been making a lot of money on you and your little boyfriend. However! I don't work for free."

Keith sighed. "Fine, what do you want."

"Pretty please watch conspiracy theory videos with me!" Pleaded  
Pidge. "I have no one to talk to about this stuff about up here!"

"What?" That was definitely not the request he'd been expecting.

"Oh come on! We all saw your conspiracy board back in the shack. There is no way you are not a total cryptid geek!"

".......Do you have mothman stuff?"

"What do you take me for?" Said Pidge defensively.

Keith hesitated.

"Yes I have mothman stuff. Do we have a deal or not?"

"Deal." Replied Keith.

"Great!" Pidge stretched her fingers. "Let's get to work." Pidge began to frantically type on the keyboard in front of her, pulling several images up on the monitor. "Ok,so to craft this pendant you have to get materials scattered across several planets, specifically in this galaxy where the legend originates from." 

Pidge enlarged an image of a galaxy, similar in appearance to the Milky Way, on her screen.

"Lucky for you we currently headed on a diplomatic mission with some old allies of Altea where we will spend five days on a planet in this very galaxy which is located... riiiight here." Pidge clicked on a small pixel on the map causing a small image of a small forestry planet towards the center of the galaxy. "Now obviously people are gonna get suspicious if you just take off for five days, namely your boyfriend, so you need an excuse which, thanks to a certain secret rebel Galra organization, we have. All you have to do is say that Kolivan invited you to train with the Blades for a few days or something and your golden. Throw in something about learning about your heritage or something, Lance will eat it up and Allura will be so happy to have you out of the way for the diplomatic meetings that she won't care where your going."

Keith opened his mouth to object to the insult but Pidge was already onto the next thing.                                                 "You'll be taking red obviously."

"Obviously." Repeated Keith sarcastically.

"She's the fastest and can get you from planet to planet quickly and because your alibi is going to BoM base and she's the only who can make the trip so yeah, obviously. Plus she's like the biggest klance shipper so she'll totally be onboard with the cause." 

Keith sighed. "I don't even want to know what that is."

"Your and Lance's ship name, duh." Pidge adjusted her glasses. "I have charted the best flight path and sent it to red along with maps of the planets, a copy of the original legend, and the book about the pendant that you'll be able to project on your suit's holo-panel. The instructions on making the pendant and the ritual are in the books. That's as much as I can help you with for now. And ummm here." Pidge handed Keith a small wrapped box. He opened it carefully to reveal a small red transparent rectangle. 

"It's like those orange camera things Allura gave us except I updated the tech to be more like a phone so you can text and shit. So this way if you need to ask me something on your trip you can just text me individually." Pidge explained.

Keith stood frozen for a second, unsure how to react. He'd seldom received any gifts and was contemplating hugging her but he knew it wasn't like him and would probably make her uncomfortable so he simply settled for an awkward, "I...uh...thank you." 

Pidge rolled her eyes but then she took a step towards and embraced him. Keith tensed up for a moment but then exhaled and relaxed, tentatively hugging the back of the shorter paladin. It was nice.  
\-----------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3

**Author's Note:**

> The hologram projected thing is totally inspired by Steven Universe cause I'm just obsessed with distant shore. That's all for now! (Comments make me happy :))


End file.
